Mississippi State/Virginia preview
Mississippi State comes in with an 11-2 record with notable wins against Ole Miss 4-2 and Auburn 5-2. Their 2 losses came against Ohio State in Columbus losing 6-1 and Texas A&M in College Station losing 4-3. Box scores below on both losses.
#16 MISSISSIPPI STATE 1, #3 OHIO STATE 6
Sunday, January 22 @ Columbus, Ohio
DOUBLES - Order of Finish 1,2,3
#1- #1 Buchanan/Rola (OSU) def. #12 Cant/Stropp (MSU) 8-5
#2- McCarthy/Engelen (OSU) def. Coupland/Ilyushin (MSU) 8-6
#3- Kobelt/Smith (OSU) def. Chaudry/White (MSU) 8-3
SINGLES - Order of Finish 6,1,2,4,5,3
#1- #8 Rola (OSU) def. #79 Chaudry (MSU) 7-6(1), 6-4
#2- #28 Buchanan (OSU) def. Ilyushin (MSU) 6-1, 6-2
#3- #45 Cant (MSU) def. Kobelt (OSU) 6-4, 5-7, 1-0
#4- #116 Engelen (OSU) def. #90 Stropp (MSU) 6-2, 6-2
#5- McCarthy (OSU) def. #32 Coupland (MSU) 0-6, 6-1, 6-4
#6- #123 Smith (OSU) def. White (MSU) 6-2, 6-2
#11 TEXAS A&M 4, #14 MISSISSIPPI STATE 3
Sunday, January 29 @ College Station, Texas
DOUBLES - Order of Finish 1,3,2
#1- Ore/Withrow (TAMU) def. #12 Cant/Stropp (MSU) 8-5
#2- Coupland/Ilyushin (MSU) def. Szabo/Klegou (TAMU) 8-4
#3- Chaudry/Wilkinson (MSU) def. Hoover/Efferding (TAMU) 8-4
SINGLES - Order of Finish 5,1,6,3,4,2
#1- #19 Klegou (TAMU) def. Ilyushin (MSU) 6-4, 6-2
#2- Hoover (TAMU) def. #79 Chaudry (MSU) 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-5
#3- #45 Cant (MSU) def. #104 Ore (TAMU) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
#4- #73 Efferding (TAMU) def. #90 Stropp (MSU) 1-6, 6-0, 7-6(6)
#5- #32 Coupland (MSU) def. Withrow (TAMU) 6-3, 6-1
#6- Lewis (TAMU) def. White (MSU) 6-3, 7-6(4)
In my opinion MSU's best chances to pick up wins in singles will be at 4 & 5. Louis Cant and George Coupland were playing at 1 & 2 a few years ago so they've got enough game to get it done. Ilyushin has a shot against Jenkins but Jenkins is playing awfully well.
-Louis Cant is 11-0 in duals with wins at #3 singles over Ohio State's Kobelt and Texas A&M's Junior Ore. He is 18-4 overall with his best wins in the fall coming against Cal's Cueto and Florida's van Overbeek and 2 of his losses coming to Kentucky's Quigley losing 6-3 in the 3rd and Auburn's #1 Mies 6-3 in the 3rd.
-George Coupland is 17-5 overall and 11-1 in duals though his 1 dual loss was to the only recognizable name he faced in Ohio State's McCarthy losing 6-4 in the 3rd. In the fall he knocked off Stanford's Ryan Thatcher and had a tight loss to Pepperdine's #1 Fanselow 4-6 6-7. A year ago during the dual season he beat Vandy's Lipman, Florida's Sliliam, & Tennessee's Rhyne Williams.
-Malte Stropp is 9-2 in duals playing 7 of 11 matches at #3 and 18-6 overall though he doesn't have a really good win to hang on the mantle. In the fall he beat Tripper Carleton 6-2, retired but it's hard to put that on the resume.
-James Chaudry is 4-5 in duals, playing 2 matches at #1 and 7 at #2, and 13-8overall. He gave Blaz Rola a good match earlier losing 7-6 6-4. His best win in the fall was against Cal's Nick Andrews.
-Artum Ilyushin is 8-2 in duals playing at #1 after taking the fall off to play Futures. He made 1 final, 1 semi, and 3 quarters on the circuit with wins over Austin Krajicek and a pair of wins over Mitchell Frank. In the dual season he has wins over Ole Miss's Marcel Theimann, Texas Tech's Gonzalo Escobar, and Boise's James Meredith. His 2 losses were lopsided ones to Chase Buchanan and Alexis Klegou.
-Zach White is 5-4 in duals and 11-8 overall. Nothing worth typing results wise.
No need to go into great detail about Virginia - we all know what they bring to the table.
Projected Line-Up with TopDawg prediction
#1: Cant/Stropp vs Jenkins/Courtney - UVA 8-5
#2: Coupland/Ilyushin vs Domijan/Rooda - MSU 9-7
#3: Chaudry/Wilkinson vs Frank/Uriguen - UVA 8-4
#1: Ilyushin vs Jenkins - UVA 6-3 4-6 1-0
#2: Chaudry vs Domijan - UVA 6-2 6-4
#3: Stropp vs Frank - UVA 6-2 6-3
#4: Cant vs Courtney - MSU 7-5 7-6
#5: Coupland vs Shane - MSU 6-4 6-4
#6: White vs Uriguen - UVA 6-2 6-1
I'd be shocked if Virginia didn't win but wouldn't be surprised to see this one end up 5-2 or 4-3 though UVA will probably get the 4-0 lead.
Match starts at 3pm eastern/2pm central.
Live Stats are here.
